An excerpt from the Defense Review article
Ultimax 100 MK4: Best Choice for USMC Infantry Automatic Rifle
(IAR)? Video Clip
Posted on Monday, March 27 @ 09:02:24 PST by davidc
Machine guns by David Crane
[email protected]
The 5.56x45mm Ultimax 100 LMG/SAW (Light Machine Gun/Squad
Automatic Weapon) was originally designed and developed (along with
its 100-shot drum magazine) from scratch in the late 1970's/early
1980's by Jim Sullivan (L. James Sullivan) and his
design/development partner Bob Waterfield for then Chartered
Industries of Singapore, a.k.a. CIS (now Singapore Technologies
Kinetics Land Systems, a.k.a. ST Kinetics Land Systems).
It is considered by many small arms experts to be the best 5.56mm
light machine gun/squad automatic weapon (LMG/SAW) in the history
of the world. DefenseReview has been writing about the Ultimax 100
LMG/SAW virtually since our inception. And, in the last year or so,
we've discussed the Ultimax quite a bit. In our article on Noveske
Rifleworks Weapons packages, we discussed not only what's important
about he Ultimax, but also how and why it's superior to the U.S.
Army's current light machine gun/squad automatic weapon (LMG/SAW),
the problematic/subpar FN M249 SAW. We also mentoned the Ultimax
100 SAW in two of our articles on the Auto-Assault-12 Shotgun
(AA-12 Shotgun): our first-ever blurb on the AA-12, and our more
extensive article on the AA-12 and FRAG-12 12-gauge armor-piercing
grenade family, published subsequently.
The reason we bring all this up is because Vincent L. Deniro (CEO)
and Brian Vuksanovich (Chief Engineer) at American Defense
Management, Inc. (ADM) have developed a bunch of modifications to
the Ultimax 100 MK3 for VT Kinetics/Vision Technologies Systems,
Inc. (VT Systems, Inc.) to create the...
Ultimax 100 MK4 LMG/SAW (5.56mm). One of these modifications is a
4179 STANAG AR-15/M16 magazine adapter that allows the Ultimax MK4
to accept both 30-round AR-15/M16 mags and 100-shot Beta
C-MAGs.
The Ultimax 100 MK4 fires from the open-bolt, fires at a cyclic
rate/rate-of-fire (ROF) of 400-600 RPM (Rounds-Per-Minute), and can
be adjusted between these two rates by the operator. The MK4 can be
had with a 13-inch barrel, side-folding buttstock, and Mil-Std-1913
rail system on top of the receiver (for mounting optics, lasers,
etc.) and on the forend at the 3, 6, and 9 o'clock positions for
mounting additional accessories (tactical white lights, lasers,
vertical foregrips, etc.).
In fact, the Ultimax is so good that noted gunwriter Charlie
Cutshaw, in his article on the Ultimax 100 MK4 for the latest issue
of Special Weapons for Military & Police (SWMP), states that
the Ultimax 100 MK3/MK4 makes for the best existing answer to the
U.S. Marine Corps' (USMC) stated requirements for an
"Non-developmental, 5.56mm, Infantry Automatic Rifle (IAR)".
Defense Review wholeheartedly agrees. The Marines could certainly
do a lot worse.
Here's a Video of the Mk.4 in operation.
The whole article can be found Here
